Fears over arms smuggling Allow Russia to export grain and fertilizers through the Black Sea Who will insure cargo ships using sea corridors? _126049695_1422d827-c551-4aa6-a6bb-054ba Photo Credit: BBC News Insurance costs for ships phone database entering the Black Sea skyrocketed after Russia invaded Ukraine. Some insurance companies charge 5% or 10% of the value of the vessel for a single voyage. However, Neil Roberts of the Lloyds Market Association, the insurance industry body, said the agreement between Russia and Ukraine should mean lower costs for transporting food. _126049696_4b98fe71-1979-4467-a800-604d4
Photo Credit: BBC News "This gives us hope that grain can be transported through Ukrainian ports and that grain trade can be restarted," he said. Without safe sea lanes, how can Ukrainian grain be exported? Before the war, more than 90% of Ukraine's grain exports were by sea. With ports blocked, Ukraine has been trying to export as much food as possible by road, using trucks and trains. The EU is trying to help create a so-called "solidarity channel" so that Ukrainian grain can be shipped from the Baltic ports and the Romanian port of Constanta. On part of the itinerary to Constanta, grain can be transported along the Danube by barge.
A major problem, however, is that train tracks in Ukraine are wider than those in other European countries. This means grain is unloaded from one set of wagons at the border and reloaded onto other wagons. As a result, it would take three weeks for Ukrainian grain to travel across Europe and reach ports on the Baltic Sea. The Ukrainian Grain Association said that only a maximum of 1.5 million tonnes of grain is exported by land per month. _126062835_37829f30-33ec-48e1-9e6b-81c83 Photo Credit: BBC News Before the war, Ukraine exported as much as 7 million tons of grain each month. This article is reprinted